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Lucy Rogers

COLUMN SPARK

ave you ever thought “If

it wasn’t for that person,

I wouldn’t be here doing

this now”?

There are many people

in our lives who probably

fit this description, but for me, and for the

makers, scientists, and engineers in the

UK who recently gave their own tributes,

Professor Heinz Wolff, who died in

December aged 89, was a huge influence.

Professor Heinz Wolff was a

scientist, an inventor, an academic,

and a television

personality – he

was best known

for hosting BBC

Two’s The Great

Egg Race from

1977 until 1986.

He made being

inquisitive, clever

and enthusiastic,

and even being a

geek – cool. This

was back before

the internet,

when my main

role models were

from the TV or magazines.

In The Great Egg Race, teams of three

were asked to “perform miracles in

science and technology using the sort

of materials which you would find in

your household or in your garage”. This

ranged from moving an egg, powered

only by an elastic band, to making a

cup of tea. Professor Heinz Wolff had a

natural sense of fun, and, through his

enthusiasm, he managed to share the

enjoyment he found in engineering.

I believe The Great Egg Race was the

first programme on TV that highlighted

making things using creativity and

imagination. To me, this helped make

being a Maker become acceptable.

People building things in their own

homes and sheds. Inventing, designing,

and making was not just for academics

or big industry. The Great Egg Race

led to other technology shows, such as

Scrap Heap Challenge and Robot Wars.

Professor Heinz Wolff thought it was

very important for people to be able to

use their hands

• in a lecture
  he gave, when
  awarded the
  Edinburgh medal,
  he said:
  “Let me tell
  you an anecdote
  about my two
  sons – from the
  age of three,
  each had a work
  bench that I had
  made, that had
  telescopic legs,
  so that as the
  children grew, the workbenches grew
  with them. They were furnished with
  proper adult tools, which gave rise to
  comments amongst concerned relations
  about how dangerous this could be,
  however, my reply always was ‘even a
  three year old will stop sawing before
  the finger fell right off’.”
  If the measure of your life is how you
  positively affected the lives of others,
  Professor Heinz Wolff absolutely lived
  life to the full.

Heinz Wolff

A tribute to a pioneering maker

H

Lucy Rogers

@DrLucyRogers

Lucy is a maker, an engineer,

and a problem solver. She is

adept at bringing ideas to life.

She is one of the cheerleaders

for the maker industry and is

Maker-In-Chief for the Guild of

Makers: guildofmakers.org

Professor Heinz Wolff

was a scientist, an

inventor, an academic,

and a television

personality – he was best

known for hosting BBC

Two’s The Great Egg Race

from 1977 until 1986